El Valencia Comic Fair It takes another step in its evolution as a major event for popular culture by clearly embracing the digital realm. Its next edition will be held From Friday, February 27th to Sunday, March 1stThe event will include an exclusive stage reserved for content creators and influencers linked to comics, anime, and animation.
With this new feature, the show aims to to strengthen the relationship between science communicators and the publicThe aim is to reach new audiences and establish itself as a meeting point where traditional comics, social media, and the latest audiovisual formats coexist. The program combines talks, live podcasts, interviews, and panel discussions throughout the three days of the fair.
A specific scenario for digital culture
The organization has launched a A space dedicated exclusively to content creatorswhere the changes that comics and manga are undergoing in the era of digital platforms will be addressed. The idea is for this space to function as a laboratory of ideas and, at the same time, as an area of direct contact between influencers and their communities.
This new space will be used by some of the best-known popularizers from the Spanish scene specializing in pop culture: Paco Hernandez, Vivaermanga, It's time for cake (represented by Gem Over), Kovacs' diary (With David Monturiol), All4freak, José Miguel Navarro, Irina Sánchez, the cultural association Dango Dango and the team Tomes and Staples.
The coordination and pacing of the stage will be handled by Ink sandwicheswho will be responsible for facilitating the various activities so that the public can participate and get involved. Alongside them, the project Cocoa and Cinnamon will record and broadcast podcasts and live interviews with professional voice actors, bringing attendees closer to very recognizable voices from anime and animation.
All these creators accumulate hundreds of thousands of followers on social mediaA large influx of fans is expected, who will take the opportunity to see in person those they follow daily on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, or other platforms. The face-to-face meeting with their communities will be one of the pillars of the program.
Friday: prejudices about animation and the leap from fan to creator
The programming for the new venue will begin on Friday afternoon with a session focused on debunking myths and explaining how a hobby can be transformed into a professional activity on social media. The first to take the microphone will be the Valencian journalist and creator. Irina Sánchez.
Sánchez will present the talk "At your age and you're still watching cartoons? From prejudice to the animation industry"where she will address how misconceptions about adult animation consumption still persist and explain the artistic and narrative richness of this medium. On her website she talks about animation, art and comics, and has a community of nearly 24.000 followers.
Next up will be José Miguel Navarro, Specialized in anime, manga, k-pop and otaku cultureWith over 467.000 followers on TikTok, she will give the talk "From fan to creator: how to turn your passion for anime into content", focused on the professionalization of fandom and the keys to creating sustainable content on social media.
Friday's session will conclude with Gem Over, Representative of It's time for cake, one of the longest-running projects dedicated to promoting comics in Spain. His presentation, entitled "6 years of experience: The world of comics as a reader and author"She will review her career as a reader, critic, and creator.
The project It's time for cake It was founded in 2004 as a review and news website and, over time, has expanded to podcast, Twitch and YouTubeIt focuses on comics published in Spain, with a special emphasis on American material but also on European and Asian comics, and was recognized with the Carlos Giménez Award 2017 to the best media outlet about comics.
Saturday: Roundtables, Dragon Ball, and analysis of the manga market
El Saturday It will concentrate a significant part of the activity, combining debates, podcasts, and interviews with some of the best-known names in comic and anime scholarship in Spain. The morning slot will open with... Cocoa and Cinnamon podcast with a program dedicated to Code Geass, in which voice actors such as Mireia López y Alvaro Esteve.
Later, a Roundtable in which they will intervene Paco Hernandez, David Monturiol (Kovacs' diary), Gema Amador (It's cake time) and Vivaermanga, with the moderation of Daniel TomásThis session will analyze the current state of comic book dissemination and the role of new platforms in recommending and discussing readings.
The midday program will include a talk by All4freakEntitled "Manga without labels: market, gender and representation"where the classification of manga by demographics, the prejudices associated with each category, and how diversity is represented in the works that reach Spain will be discussed.
Later in the afternoon, the focus will shift to Paco Hernandez, one of the most recognizable faces of cultural dissemination on social media. She combines her role as screenwriter and writer with channel management "A real Paco"where he talks about comics, movies, and TV series. He has over 4,2 million followers on TikTok alone, in addition to more than 1,28 million on YouTube and over 260.000 on Instagram.
In addition to participating in the round table, Hernández will be featured in an interview conducted by Monica Crespo (Ink Drops), where we will delve into their way of working, their relationship with the audience, and the responsibility of the popularizers when recommending works to such a broad public.
Another of the standout names on Saturday will be VivaermangaA manga and anime expert with a strong community across various platforms—for example, around 60.000 followers on X—. In his talk "Dragon Ball, present and future" It will review the legacy of Akira Toriyama's work, its impact in Spain, and the perspectives that open up with the new productions and editions.
Vivaermanga has been involved in specialized media for over a decade, with collaborations on the radio program "Freakytown" and in the section "Each geek has their own thing" from space "The night of Cremades" on Canal Sur. He is currently still active on his YouTube channel. Long live Er Manga!where he publishes reviews, unboxings and other content focused on otaku culture.
The day will be completed with new installments of Cocoa and Cinnamon podcast, among them one dedicated to the Uchiha family —with guests like Carles Teruel, Jose Manuel Oliva y Alex Moreno—, in which the public will be able to attend the live recording and ask questions of the participants.
Sunday: outreach, anime industry, and comic book history
El sunday The focus will shift to outreach, publishing history, and the state of animation at the box office. It will open the day. Kovacs' diary with the talk "The popularization of comics today. The creators speak.", a collective reflection on how the way of talking about comics has changed in Spain and what challenges criticism and recommendation projects face.
Then the Hanami Dango association will take over with the conference "Anime at the Spanish Box Office in 2025", in which the performance of Japanese productions in cinemas, the growth of their presence on billboards and the profile of the audience that consumes them will be analyzed.
One of the most anticipated moments of Sunday will be the presence of the team from Tomes and Staples, who will develop the talk "The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Vertigo"The session will review the history of the Vertigo imprint, its influence on adult comics internationally, and its legacy in the works published today in Spain and Europe.
The final block of the day will again be marked by several recordings of Cocoa and Cinnamon podcastAmong them, a program about Sonic Boom, Involving Jesus Motos, Jesús Giménez y José Luis Siuranaand another focused on Assassination Classroom with the intervention of Fer BarberThese sessions will allow the public to see how a dubbing podcast is built from the inside.
The final talk on stage will be given by José Miguel Navarro, who will return to the program to talk about "Anime fandom in the age of TikTok and social media"It will address how fan communities are organized, what role short video platforms play, and how they influence the success of series and films.
During the same weekend, it will also be present All4Freak, content creator with a significant community on Instagram and a professional in the sector as bookseller and head of the manga section in a Barcelona shop. Her dual role, as a popularizer and as a bookseller, reinforces the connection of the event with the reality of the publishing market.
With the implementation of this stage dedicated to influencers and communicatorsThe Valencia Comic Fair is consolidating its profile as a cross-disciplinary event where comics, manga, animation, dubbing, and digital culture converge. The combination of talks, live podcasts, interviews, and panel discussions, along with the presence of some of the country's most followed content creators, points to a particularly dynamic edition that reinforces the fair's role as one of the major cultural events on the Valencian calendar and a benchmark in the European comic book scene.
